The year was 1833. The place, the sleepy town of Guanajuato, a colonial town in central Mexico. One day, townspeople suddenly became sick and died.
Cholera outbreak! Panic ensued. People tried everything to ward off the disease; casting bizarre spells, applying strange and useless medicines, and prayer…lots of prayers.
As the corpses piled up, the devastated population buried them as quickly as they could to prevent the health risk inherent in the spread of the disease.
Time passed and the cholera epidemic was mostly forgotten. In the 1870s the local government imposed a burial tax on anyone that wanted to continue perpetual care for the graves of their relatives buried so long ago.
Any bodies for which the local tax was not paid were disinterred and stored in a warehouse.
Once disinterred, the townspeople were shocked to see that the bodies were remarkably well-preserved. In fact, they were mummified bodies, preserved corpses.